• L&NE Mike 425

  • Discussion of the L&NR railroad for the period 1868-1961 at its inclusion in the Central of New Jersey. Also includes predecessors South Mountain and Boston Railroad, Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and New England Railroad, and others.
Discussion of the L&NR railroad for the period 1868-1961 at its inclusion in the Central of New Jersey. Also includes predecessors South Mountain and Boston Railroad, Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and New England Railroad, and others.

Moderator: David

  by riffian
 
What's the story on this engine? Obviously second hand. ex CNJ?
  by CarterB
 
L&NE bought several Mikes from the PRR. Not sure if 425 was one of them.
  by riffian
 
No - the ex-Pennsy engines were 501 through 504, purchased in 1941. They must have been pretty much worn out as their builders dates were 1915 thru 1918. The 425 appears to be an orphan.
  by Aa3rt
 
Riffian-the only 2-8-2's rostered by the L&NE were the 4 ex-PRR locos.

If you're referring to the photo posted at NortheastRailfan.Net that is in the L&NE roster, the same photo appears in the Lehigh Valley roster. The 425 was one of 10 2-8-2's of the N-4 class built by Baldwin in 1923. Here's the photo in the Lehigh Valley section:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/lv425s.jpg

And a link to the very same photo in the Lehigh & New England section:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/lne425s.jpg

I believe this is simply an indentification error on the part of the website. The location of the photo is identified as Pen Argyl. I do have a book (IIRC Lehigh & New England by Krause and Crist, published by Carstens) showing a fan trip to the L&NE drawn by an LV steamer-possibly the location is the source of confusion.

The 4 ex-PRR locos were the only steamers with trailing trucks on the L&NE roster and reportedly were preferred by the L&NE engine crews for their smoother ride as opposed to the 2-8-0's, 2-10-0's and 0-8-0's that made up the vast majority of the L&NE roster.

The L&NE dropped the fires on their last steamers in the fall of 1949, some PRR steamers lasted in revenue service until 1957.
  by riffian
 
Art - thanks very much for clearing this up. I did indeed get get the info as you describe......I didn't have an L&NE roster to cross check this information. Trying to go back and forth from several sources to get roster info is hard work!!

Bill Root
New Castle, Delaware